The Time Lady
by Mischief and Magic
Summary: Pippa Frost refused to die until the first snow of winter fell. The next thing she knew, the Man in the Moon was making her the Keeper of Time.
1. New Beginnings

**Pippa Frost refused to die until the first snow of winter fell. The next thing she knew, the Man in the Moon was making her the Keeper of Time.**

* * *

Whoever said time healed all wounds was a liar.

Just like Jack was.  
_  
"Would I trick you?"_

_"Yes, you always play tricks!"_

_"Well not this time. I promise, I promise. You're going to be fine."_

How could she be fine when he was gone? It had been 6 years since Pippa Frost saw the thin ice crack under her brother's feet. 6 years since Jackson Overland Frost took his last breath. 6 years since she'd been truly happy.

It was hard to believe that her brother, who was usually energetic and lively, wasn't so full of life anymore.

He was _dead_.

And it was all her fault.

Pippa Frost shivered violently as the cold wind whistled around her. She shouldn't have been in the forest during a freezing cold night, especially not in her condition, but she had to be here tonight. Sometimes she liked to sneak out and sit by the frozen lake- the same one where her brother had drowned. It was wrong, and a bit masochistic, but she liked to sit in the moonlight and watch as the first snowflakes of winter descended from the sky. It reminded her of when she and her brother caught them in their tongues, had snowball fights, and came home with fevers that their mother inevitably and constantly chastised them about.

Whenever the snow fell, she was happy.

Whenever the snow fell, it felt like Jack was there.

Pippa had stopped believing in the stories her brother had whispered to her when their parents were asleep. The magic of her childhood faded when he was gone- Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and the Easter Bunny weren't real. All those nights stayed up trying to catch the elusive fairy and dream-giver, all those days hunting down chocolates and hard-boiled eggs, and all those lists written to the man up north were just beautiful lies that simultaneously filled her heart with happiness and bitter nostalgia.

But no matter what, she still believed in Jack.

_'Ack, ack, ach,'_

Pippa put a hand to her mouth as she let out a series of uncontrollable coughs. She was, essentially, dying of pneumonia, an infection of the lungs. It was an excruciating, painful virus that had slowly spread through her body about two weeks ago. Fever, fatigue, nausea, fits of coughing, vomiting, and shortness of breath had constantly plagued her. But it wasn't the physical agony that was excruciating for her- it was the guilt.

Jack had sacrificed himself to prevent her from dying, and what was she doing now? Dying. If only she had been braver, if only she'd been quicker, then, then Jack didn't need to…. Then he didn't have to...

His sacrifice was a waste, because she was an idiot who left misfortune in her wake.

_'Ack, ack, ach'_

But she couldn't die. Not now, at least. She was waiting.

Pippa could feel her life slipping away from her, but she gritted her teeth in perseverance and stared up into the sky at the moon's dim light. "Please, just give me some time with Jack. Just one minute. Even a second would be oka-"

The sound of laughter pierced the air.

Pippa Frost let out a smile. It was a laugh- Jackson's laugh- that always echoed through the air before the first snow of winter. Maybe she was hallucinating, but it was the most wonderful hallucination her mind could conjure. And sometimes, just like tonight, she could make out his silhouette performing complicated twists and turns against the silver moonlight.

A single snowflake landed on Pippa's nose, and the girl's smile transformed into a grin.

She had her second.

She could die now.

Jack was there.

* * *

It was dark and cold. Her mind reeled with confusion, and in her momentary disorientation, her breath hitched in fear. She tried to move her body, but could only manage to twitch the tip of her fingers. She then attempted to scream for help, but only a whisper escaped from her throat.

The girl began to panic, and a myriad of questions shot through her brain.

Was she dead? Where was she? How did she end up wherever she was? What was going on?

...Who was she?

She didn't know anything, really, and that terrified her.

All of a sudden, a thin ray of silver light cut through the darkness, and the girl's eyes widened in anticipation. Slowly, she was lifted into the air by an invisible force, her body breaking a clean layer of snow. The girl looked upward, and she found herself facing the full moon. She could feel power emanating from the celestial body, and her skin tingled with energy. Her weariness fell away, and she could feel herself growing stronger bit by bit. She wasn't scared anymore. On the contrary, she felt at ease.

_'Pippa'_

Pippa... was that her name?

_'I can give you much more than a second with your brother.' _

She had a brother?

_'The world is, was, will be in danger. The guardians will need help. Your help.'_

The light faded as Pippa was gently lowered back down to the snow-covered ground, next to a frozen pond. She waited to for light to come back and say... say _something_, but it didn't.

The girl sighed in frustration, and took the opportunity to examine herself. She wore a long, brown dress with a red and white diamond pattern around the hem. Looking down into the ice at her reflection, she saw that she was thin- almost deathly so- with straight brown hair and freckles under her big, brown eyes.

She stepped back, intending to walk around the pond's perimeter, and ended up colliding into something warm. It was a long, wooden pole with a long, curved blade attached perpendicularly to its end. Dangling from the blade was a miniature hourglass, filled with sand that almost seemed to glow.

...What was a scythe doing here?

The girl warily took the scythe in her hand and the weapon began to softly glow. Pippa stumbled back and held her other hand to her head, which was searing with a mind-numbingly painful sensation.

She could see... _everything_. She saw her former life as Pippa Frost with her mother, father, and Jack. She saw the sun and the moon. The day and the night. Death and creation. The ground beneath her feet spinning around the sun. The whole of time and space. Everything turning into dust and sand. All there is, all there was, all there ever could be.

It hurt _so much_.

She felt like she was going to burn from the inside, or at least pass out, but the pain gradually subsided. Pippa opened her eyes, which, unbeknownst to her, were now an unnaturally brilliant gold.

_'Do you know who you are?' _

Pippa looked up at the moon and tightened her grip on the scythe. "My name is Pippa Frost. I remember my past life. But now... now I'm a Time Keeper. I can control time. I can see infinite time streams and possibilities, as well as fixed points in time- things that should... things that _have_ to happen, or the world will plunge into chaos. I make sure that what should happen does."

_'Do you know what fixed point in time is in trouble?'_

Pippa gulped nervously. "294 years from now, something will rise and affect children all over the world. It's so dark, and hopeless, and..." She shuddered, "Scary. What is it? I feel... I _know_ that a major battle needs to occur, and the outcome is in flux... What do I do? And how will this make me see Jack again?"

_'You will see eventually. Usually you could time travel, but for this fight you will need experience. And, Pippa Frost, it's going to take you a while.'_

"How long?"

_'294 years.'_

Those were the last words Pippa heard from the Man in the Moon for a very, very long time.

* * *

**I know that Pippa is not officially the name of Jack's sister, but it just stuck for me.  
**

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm not sure when I'll update next. Oh, and before you ask, yes, I was partially inspired by Doctor Who. I mean, the Doctor is a Time Lord and all.  
**

**Please review!**


	2. Enter Sandman

******Hey, everyone! Thanks so much for the reviews! You have no idea how happy it makes me to see them. Happy Holidays!  
**

* * *

******Chapter 2- Enter Sandman  
**

To put it bluntly, Pippa Frost had absolutely no idea what to do.

The moon, or at least the being that lived in it, had given her the task of saving the children of the world with no further instructions. Were there rules to this... this... time-keeping thing? What could she do? Was there anyone else like her? And where was _Jack_? Seeing him for a second chance was the only reason why she even wanted to go along with, well, _whatever _was going on.

Pippa turned her head to walk toward the village, and instead found herself mere inches from the blade of her scythe. She did a double-take. Was it dangerous? That was a stupid question, of course it was- it was a _scythe_. But something seemed different about the weapon. For one thing, the thing was enormous, and yet somehow, even with her petite frame, she managed to lift it with ease. Not to mention the fact that the scythe seemed like it belonged with her, as weird as that sounded. It fit perfectly in her palm and there was a comforting quality to it- like its purpose was to defend her rather than cause damage. _'Or cutting down crops,' _Pippa thought with a snort of laughter.

The teenager turned the blade away from her body and resumed walking on the snowy ground toward Burgess. Hopefully her parents wouldn't notice she'd snuck out tonight. And if they did, well, at least she could tell them her pneumonia was gone, right?

Pippa soon saw the glow of outside fireplaces from her village. A few adults were walking around the village despite the late hour.

Great... just great.

The teenager attempted to move stealthily around the adults by hiding behind barrels, but she ended up tripping over her own feet and landing on her own face in her efforts. Her scythe skidded a few inches away from her hand, and Pippa hastily lifted herself off the ground. She struck a brief _'I meant to do that'_ pose and waited for one of the adults to notice her small display of grace, or lack thereof. Thankfully, none of them did. It was just as well, actually- she couldn't exactly make up a good excuse for being out so late with a weapon in her hand. Tricking people was always Jack's forte.

_Jack._

Pippa softly smiled at the thought that she would see him again. Maybe not in soon (try 294 years), but eventually they would be reunited.

_'Achoo!'_

Pippa turned around and jumped at the sight of a woman with a stuffy nose walking toward her. She looked familiar, like they'd briefly encountered each other before, but Pippa couldn't remember her name. She was pretty sure it started with an 'E'. Lots of name started with the letter 'E', right?

"Um, hi Ms. Evans! It's Ms. Evans, right? I was just going back to bed." Pippa said with a forced grin.

But her grin soon faded as the woman walked right through her.

Pippa let out a shrill yelp and stumbled back as shock and panic simultaneously consumed her mind. What was _that_?! Ms. Evans (or _whatever_ her name was- Pippa _really _couldn't care less at the moment) had walked right through her. The unpleasant sensation pulsed through her body, and the girl put a hand to her chest in fear.

She was dead, she realized. _She was dead_. She had died of pneumonia and she was some sort of ghost, which is why the woman couldn't see her and had passed through her...

_And she was dead_.

Pippa choked back a sob and snatched the scythe from the ground. She gripped it so tightly her knuckles went white, and the girl began to tremble violently. She tried to blink back tears, but her attempts were futile, and her vision soon became clouded. Pippa sniffled and angrily wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

Oh _god_, what about her parents? She didn't even get a chance to say good-bye. She couldn't hug them anymore because they couldn't touch her. They couldn't know she was alive (in some sense of the word) because they couldn't see her. They couldn't know that she loved them or that it wasn't their fault because they couldn't even _hear _her.

The girl looked up toward the sky at the full moon, tears still streaming down her face.

It did not speak.

Pippa gritted her teeth and, in an act of rage, swung her scythe around. It lodged itself into the nearest object, a tree, and the girl pulled it out, only to wedge it back into the trunk with more vigor. She furiously repeated the cycle of chopping and yanking until the tree was nothing but chips of wood. The girl swung her weapon one more time, and, as the blade made contact with the tree, the plant dispersed into a cloud of dust.

Okay, at this point, Pippa was freaking out.

What just happened?! Tress didn't just vanish into clouds of dust!

"Wait..." Pippa muttered to herself, recalling her recent experience with the moon, "Everything turns into dust and sand in the end..."

Was that her power? To make things crumble into ash and dust? To make things _die? _That was a horrible power! She thought she was a Time Keeper, not a... a tree killer!

...She was a Time Keeper.

_'I can control time,'_ Pippa realized.

So maybe she could reverse this? She'd made the tree rapidly age, so theoretically, she could undo the process.

Pippa warily inched toward the pile of dust and sand on the ground. She slowly reached her arm out, and, with her index finger, touched it.

Nothing happened.

The girl huffed in frustration and poked the mass of dust and sand again and again. And, again and again, nothing happened.

_'Come on, Pippa. All you need to do is concentrate.' _She mentally scolded herself. She needed to stay positive and not let disappointment get to her. _'Think of happy things, like, like... hunting for Easter eggs, snowball fights, Jack wearing antlers while dancing by the fire...'_

Pippa laughed softly at the last thought. She closed her eyes and let the past go to focus on the issue at present. The girl concentrated on the pile of dust and sand. She visualized the mass bunching together and morphing into the shape of a tree. Then, the teenager imagined the structure actually _becoming_ a tree- with actual bark, roots, leaves, and everything. Pippa felt a burst of energy radiate from her body, and she knew that it had worked. When her eyes fluttered open, a tiny sapling, about 2 inches tall, was sprouting from the ground.

Well, it wasn't the size she was aiming for, but it would do.

Pippa let out a cry of joy and pumped her fist in the air. That was incredible! She could make things revert back into their original form! She had so many things to try out. Would it work with fossils? That would be so cool if she could bring back dinosaurs! Well, the herbivores, at least. Imagine her own dinosaur army...

Her thoughts were cut short by a golden glow in the distance.

What was that? She hadn't done it. And if she had, it wasn't on purpose.

Pippa walked toward the source of light, which was coming from the window of a nearby house. She stood silently against the outside wall, waiting for... _whatever_ that was, to come outside.

A wisp of golden sand flowed in the corner of her eyes.

It was right behind her.

Pippa turned around to face the source, holding out her scythe in case she needed to defend herself.

Standing in front of her was a short man in a robe with his hair was sticking upward in all directions. He was, from head to toe, a golden color- even his skin and eyes. Underneath his feet was some sort of golden cloud, except it looked like it was made of sand. But the weirdest part, by far, was that he was waving at her.

_'Clop, clop,' _

Pippa hesitantly turned her head toward the noise, afraid that the odd man would attack her while she was looking. When she looked into the window of the house the man had just come out from, she saw a small boy in his bed. Floating over his head was the same golden sand as the stranger's, only it was in the shape of a knight on a horse.

They boy was asleep and he was dreaming.

Pippa turned back to the stranger. "You're... the Sandman?"

The stranger cocked his head and nodded.

Pippa used to believed in him when she was younger, but believing in something and seeing it were two completely different things. "But... how? You're not real! You're just a story that people made u..." The girl trailed off. She'd just died and had a conversation with the moon. If anything, meeting the Sandman was the most normal part of her night.

A question mark appeared over his head, followed by a series of pictures that were too rapid for her to follow.

"Um... could you say that out loud? I didn't really catch you there."

The Sandman gave shot her an unamused glare. Sand shot out from his ears, which Pippa knew was a sign of frustration. She was about to apologize when an hourglass appeared over his head.

"Time?" Pippa asked.

The Sandman nodded, and the sand from the hourglass poured out to form a river.

"Um, water? A river of time?"

The man shook his head.

"Time is fluid?" Pippa suggested.

The man nodded with a smile, and the river over his head transformed into a pyramid with the eye of Horus etched on it. On top of the pyramid was a miniature figure of him next to a small figure with a scythe which, she assumed, was supposed to be her.

"Egypt. Ancient Egypt?"

The Sandman nodded.

"That's me... and, and you. In Ancient Egypt..." Pippa mulled over the clues the Sandman had given her. Time is fluid. Ancient Egypt. The two of them...

"Even though it's the first time I've met you, this isn't the first time you've met me, is it?" Pippa asked. That was weird. For one thing, she hadn't really thought about time travel before tonight. For another, she was sure the moon had told her that she couldn't time travel. Maybe after the 294 years she could go back in time or something. Pippa really didn't have a clue at this point. "Did I tell you to be here? The future me... in the past, I mean. Did that make sense?"

The Sandman nodded his head, and his sand took the form of a bowler hat. He took it in his hand, tipped it, and the word _'Sandy'_ was written in cursive above his head.

"Sandy." Pippa read aloud. "That's your name?"

The Sandman nodded.

"Listen, Sandy, I just died and had the moon speak to me. Don't worry, I'm over it... well, not really, but that's not the point," Pippa sighed, "I don't suppose you can help me understand what's going on?"

The giver of dreams, thankfully, nodded in agreement.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter! The next one will take place during the beginning of the movie. It will be slightly AU, but only because Pippa is there.  
**

**Please review! **


	3. Prophecies and a Russian Santa

**Chapter 3- Prophecies and a Russian Santa**

_-294 years later-_

Even though it was late at night, the streets of Manhattan were illuminated by light, which was diffracted by the heavy precipitation currently plaguing the borough. The sound of rain sizzling against concrete streets mixed with that of honking cars, shouting pedestrians, and bustling trains into a cacophonous symphony. New Yorkers both ran and trudged through the rain, the occasional person muttering profanities under their breath. People without umbrellas used anything and everything to spare themselves from the severe weather: newspapers, sweaters, plastic bags, even their own hands- which, of course, did little to nothing. No one wanted to be outside that day in the pouring rain, and everyone scrambled to go home.

All except one.

Although that may have been because she was dead and couldn't care less.

Pippa Frost didn't have an umbrella on hand either, but unlike the others, she enjoyed the cool, tickling sensation against her skin and the smell of salt-water in the air. However, she was so soaked that her clothes stuck to her like a heavy second skin and her usually light brown hair- now ten shades darker due to the rain- clung to her face. The only thing in her possession that was dry was a brown messenger bag, which was slung over her left shoulder.

Pippa swung her scythe absent mindedly, the weapon making a 'whoosh' with every revolution. The miniature hourglass dangling from the scythe jangled as the girl strolled barefooted against the rooftops of the city, pausing only to jump from building to building. As she walked, the wind whistled in her ears, but this hardly fazed the Keeper.

_'Pippa'_

The girl jumped in shock, losing her balance and stumbling backward in a desperate attempt to stay upright. When she eventually stabilized herself, Pippa transitioned into a defensive stance, her scythe at the ready. The Keeper's golden eyes shifted from side to side, her heart beating at an uncontrollable pace as her muscles tensed in apprehension of a surprise attack. She futilely tried to regulate her shaky breath, which came out in white puffs that slowly dissipated in the cold night air.

That voice... it sounded familiar.

_...Manny?_

Pippa slumped her shoulders and tilted her head to the side, her scythe lowering slightly. She quickly spun on her heel, expecting to face the celestial being, but instead found something entirely different.

The aurora borealis.

Pippa's jaw slacked as her golden eyes widened at the wide spectrum of colors that filled the New York skyline, despite the fact that it was cloudy and, on top of that, raining.

The Keeper let her right arm, which held her scythe, hang loosely to her side. She ran her hand through her soaked hair and quickly calculated the time.

_'11:30 PM in New York. 1:30 AM in Buenos Aires. 3:30 PM in Sydney. 10:30 AM in Dhaka. 12:30 PM in Shanghai. 12:30 AM in Santo Domingo. 6:30 AM in Istanbul and Harare. 4:30 AM in Glasgow. 9:00 AM in Kabul. 5:30 AM in Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Madrid...'  
_  
No not time zones- she wanted the time from a specific date to the present. What was it now...?

_Oh.  
_  
294 years since she had died.

The battle was going to begin- well, _had already begun_, actually, considering the northern lights shining in the distance. What was she going to do? She wasn't a guardian or anything of the sort, so she couldn't just barge in uninvited (Pippa was pretty sure Santa's workshop was heavily guarded by yetis, anyway). And even if the Keeper did, what would she say? _'Hey, the Man in the Moon said I was supposed to help you, but I have no idea who or what we're fighting, much less what to do?'  
_  
Yeah, _that _was a great idea. Half of the guardians didn't even know who she was.

Granted, she _was_ strong enough to break into Santa's workshop. Pippa had the power of slowing time around her, reverting things back into their younger and older forms (this only extended to fossils and inanimate objects), wielding an enchanted scythe, seeing infinite time streams, and even reciting prophecies- though she wasn't very fond of the last one. While they were always true, the meanings were always left ambiguous until after the event had passed, which wasn't exactly useful. Not to mention the fact that most of them had to do with death. And despair. And pain. And sorrow...

Pippa shook her head when she realized she was losing her train of thought. _'The point is,'_ she reminded herself, _'I'm powerful enough to sneak past yetis. I'm can-_ I'm going _to break into Santoff Clausen'. _ This is what she had been preparing to do for almost three centuries- fight. To protect the children of the world.

To see Jack.

The Keeper fiddled with her scythe at the thought of seeing her brother again. He was immortal, but what powers did he have? Would he recognize her? Would she recognize him? After all, people who were chosen by the moon changed, if her golden eyes were any indication. Pippa licked her lips nervously and clenched her jaw, pushing the questions away from her thoughts. Right now, she needed to concentrate.

The girl reached to her side, where her brown messenger bag hung. She unclasped the golden lock on its center and lifted the flap, revealing labeled, airtight glass vials filled with dust and sand, which pinged as drops of precipitation bounced off of them. Pippa squinted in the darkness as she reached into the bag, using her hand to shift vials around until she found what she wanted. Eventually, the Keeper raised a vial up to her face, reading the side in the artificial light of the city. The label, written in sloppy cursive, read: _Drake- Pteranodon._

Satisfied, Pippa removed the wooden stopper on top of the vial, letting the dust and sand pour out. However, unlike normal dust and sand, the contents did not form clumps in the rain, but instead clouded around her feet. They wisped around in the air until they formed a skull, which had bones projecting upward and backward. A long, slender, toothless beak with sharp points then developed, with the upper jaw being longer than the lower one. Then, a skeleton grew from the dust, plate-like bony ligaments strengthening the vertebrae above the hip, and a relatively short tail in which the last few vertebrae were fused into a long rod. Skin, muscle, and other tissue soon made its way across the skeleton, and wings were soon formed by a membrane stretching from the ankles to a lengthened fourth finger.

The recently reformed pterosaur blinked in confusion, cocking its head to the side. Its pupils, which were black, reptilian slits, soon landed on the Keeper, and the flying creature stepped toward her. The girl stared back at the pterosaur, unblinking, and stood firmly in place, despite the reptile being uncomfortably close. The animal opened its toothless beak, spread its wings to a diameter of 18 feet, and let out a scream so loud and shrill, Pippa screwed her eyes shut as her hair flew in all directions. After the reptile had finished, she held a hand to her ear, scowling in exasperation.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry I left you in there for so long. But did you really have to scream, Drake? You're such a drama queen." The Keeper remarked.

Pippa could have sworn the pterosaur shot her an indignant look. The girl smiled sheepishly and touched the side of the reptile's face, which Drake responded to with suspicion. After a few seconds, the animal's doubt wavered, and he leaned into the physical contact with affection.

"So... let's say I had to travel to the North Pole. How long would it take you?"

A cry of annoyance soon filled the air.

* * *

"I resent this," Pippa said in monotone.

She had been caught breaking in.

The brown and white yeti holding her by the arm let out a string of sentences in his native language, ending his rant by poking the Keeper sharply. Pippa closed her eyes in frustration and scowled as the yeti continued garbling. While she expected the yetis to be on guard, she hadn't anticipated so many of them to attack her so quickly and aggressively. They'd even taken her scythe and messenger bag, which they regarded with incredible suspicion. Why were so many on guard, anyway? The only possible answer was that they increased the security. Whatever had happened here must have really jarred the Abominable Snowmen, not to mention North.

Pippa didn't try to reason with the yeti- it didn't work the first five times, it wouldn't work now. The only thing she could do was hang helplessly as the yeti took her to, well, _wherever_ he was taking her. The Abominable Snowman swung a heavy, wooden door open, revealing an incredibly large room decorated in rich, bright colors. Pippa let out a gasp as her golden eyes widened in amazement.

"Whoa."

Even though she was being held captive, the Keeper still had to admire North's workshop, which was truly a sight to behold. Colored confetti fell from above while yetis, much like the one holding her, were creating new toys for the children of the world in an organized chaos. Model airplanes whizzed through the air, diving and looping in complex twists and turns. A few yetis were testing electric, toy guitars, which lit up different colors with each note. Some Abominable Snowmen were meticulously assembling miniature red fire trucks. Others, however, were coloring princess castles a rose pink while one yeti, who had yellow and white hair, painted dozens of toy robots a sky blue.

In the middle of the room were elves- small little creatures with pointy ears. They wore red hats that covered their bodies, a jingle bell on top of each one. The elves had wrapped themselves in Christmas tree decorations- fairy lights, tinsel, glass ornaments, and stars. They looked, for the lack of a better word, ridiculous, and Pippa couldn't help but crack a smile. It was weird- she'd always thought they were professional toy-makers, not... _whatever_ they were.

Eventually, the yeti holding her had walked toward a lift. He stepped inside, pulled a lever, and waited as they ascended toward the higher floors. The moment he stepped off, a booming voice hollered from a distance.

"Are you done vith preparations?! A guest has already arrived! I hear the elevator!" A man shouted. His Russian accent made him sound incredibly intimidating, but the yeti holding Pippa wasn't rattled in the least. Instead, he walked calmly into the room, where a few elves were scampering around a man who had his back turned to them. Upon hearing the two enter the room, he spun around to face them.

"Welcome, I-" The man cut himself off, staring at Pippa. The Keeper gulped at the Guardian of Wonder, who was a large, slightly round man that had a Russian appearance. He had bright blue eyes and black eyebrows, which contrasted his white hair, beard, and mustache. The guardian wore a long red coat with black fur trim, black cassock-style pants, and a red plaid shirt.

Wait. Santa was... _Russian?_

"Who are you?" North asked in a deadly whisper, breaking Pippa's train of thought. He looked up at the yeti, "Who is she?!"

The yeti started ranting in his native language, making one-handed gestures as he spoke. North held a hand to his beard as the Abominable Snowman spoke, raising a black eyebrow as the story progressed. When the yeti finished with his story, North shot him a look of confusion.

"...A pterodactyl flew from the sky with the little girl on his back and then... a vooly mammoth appeared?" He asked incredulously.

The yeti nodded.

North sighed, shaking his head. "Have you gone comple-"

"Please put me down, and I'll explain everything." Pippa interjected.

To her surprise, the man nodded to the yeti, who obliged, and the girl managed to land on her feet, albeit ungracefully. She straightened her dress, which had dried from the rain in New York (but still smelled like saltwater), and massaged her sore shoulder. After a few seconds, she realized the Guardian of Wonder was watching her, and she cleared her throat.

"My name's Pippa. I know I'm not a guardian, but The Man in the Moon told me to be here... I think. I'm the Time Keeper." The girl made a circling motion with her hand, and the apparition of a clock appeared. It made a distinct ticking noise and, after a few moments, vanished into smoke.

North's face lit up. He walked toward her and patted her on the back, knocking the breath out of her lungs. "Pippa, the Time Keeper! I have heard of you from other immortals. You are very secluded, little girl. We have not met in all these years! I did not realize it was you- thought you had a scythe."

"Um, well your yetis took it from me when I tried to break in. Sorry about that. I don't suppose I can have them bac-" The Keeper faltered. An invisible, crushing weight suddenly pushed down on her, making her body feel like lead. She shuddered, closing her eyes momentarily. As she reopened them, they glowed with power.

When she spoke, her voice tripled- like three of her were talking at once.

_"Fading lights, a darkened earth.  
Finding one's forgotten hearth.  
Sand to dust and dust to sand.  
Immortals, together, they must band.  
Frost will freeze, in darkness tied.  
Revealing who has lost and lied.  
And to panic, the world must fall,  
Unless the fallen answers the call."_

At the last word, Pippa collapsed. The yeti caught her and helped her up. Her skin was feverish, and her eyes had lost their glow.

North gaped at her. "Vat vas that?"

Pippa shook her head, confused.

"What was what?"

* * *

**I hope you liked this chapter. I tried to be more descriptive, but I think I may have overdone it or messed it up. Also, North was a bit OOC. What do you guys think?**

**Please review! **


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